Quotes/mottos/sayings
 

" If you don't have anything to, don't do it here."

Not SOF, but I saw a DUI once for a WW2-era Coast Artillery Regiment whose motto was "Don't Kick My Dog". I've often wondered what the story was behind that.

You probably met my father! :D

Not to sure about the SASR/4RAR(comando) mottos

I think one is De opresso liber ("To liberate the opposed")

"De Oppresso Liber" is the U.S. Special Forces motto, as you can see on the crest at the top of the page. Whether it was also picked up by any Aussies, I don't know. SASR's motto is the same as the SAS - "Who Dares, Wins" - though I suppose there are other mottoes out there as well. The Royal Australian Regiment's motto is "Duty First".

Yeah i think it has been adopted there is also "train hard - fight easy" which might have again been ripped.

PMcP -
Actually there are 2 accepted translations for "De Oppresso Liber"- Latin is funny that way:
1. Freedom for the oppressed
2. From oppression, Freedom

"Normal is a cycle on a washing machine"- quote from a book about an A-team in Vietnam called "long walk in a slow rain". Used with the permission of the author and translated in to Blackfoot Indian it is the motto of the Asymmetric Warfare Group.

The Blackfoot is in honor of "Chief" Carlson who served in Infantry, Ranger, Special Forces, and Delta assignments. KIA in Afghanistan while serving as a contractor with another govt agency. Chief was a member of the Blackfoot nation.

Literal translation is "From Oppression, Liberate" Into English, Liberate The Oppressed. Spanish is Latin.;)

I like that. Can you post it in Blackfoot?

RIP Chief.

Just to be pedantic, I would note that actually, "De Oppresso Liber" is not proper Latin. Cicero would certainly look at you funny if you said it to him. It is derived from Medieval Latin usages, but is not gramatically Latin.

De is a preposition meaning "from" or "down from" and its object takes the ablative case. Another preposition, ex, also means "from" or "out of" and might be closer to the meaning we are looking for. The "-ō" after an ablative preposition indicates a second declension noun, which would make the nominative form oppressum (neut.) or oppressus (masc.). These would be participle forms of the verb opprimere, and mean "oppressed". But that makes de oppresso mean "from the oppressed" not "from oppression".

See, for example, the Latin Vulgate versions of Jeremiah 22:3: ... et liberate vi oppressum de manu calumniatoris... ("...and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor...") and II Peter 2:7: ...Loth, oppressum a nefandorum iniuria conversatione... ("...Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd conversation of the wicked...").

Liber by itself is an adjective meaning "free". Freedom is libertas. The verb "to free" is libero, but would have different endings depending on context; also, it wouldn't take de but ab, ex or no preposition.

The line from the Book of Jeremiah above - "and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor" - might be a good basis for a motto, but the Vulgate isn't good Classical Latin either.

There's always semper ubi sub ubi - "always wear underwear." :D

Doc,

I'm TDY. Let me work that.

Penetra Le Tenebre
"Penetrate The Shadows"

Never Fail!

A-L,
I wasn't going to go there, but you are 100% correct. I had to study latin in grammar school and middle school, and relied on the fact that vulgate Medieval Latin is more commonplace to the masses because of the influence of the Catholic Church than is the purer Classic Latin. I defer to your synopsis, but still stand by the translations offered - in spirit, if not literally.

Actually, my hope was someone would show that the phrasing came from soldier's Latin, which like soldier's English, is a bit rougher and looser with the grammar than the classical language.

Soldier's Latin is best preserved in Romanian, though modern Romanian has lots of Slavic and Hungarian influences and went through a classical revival period which had the unintended effect of copying some French usages (which of all the major Romance languages is actually furthest from Latin).